We all know that when the stock market takes a big freakin’ dive, it’s at least partly attributable to investor panic. So when the DOW loses almost 800 points, 7% — for comparison, the drop after 9/11 was 4.9%, and Black Tuesday’s was 12.8% — on the news that the bailout failed, why aren’t we hearing calls for the markets to be shut down for a few days or a week so Congress can hammer out some kind of plan that actually will pass the House?

One Response

I asked the same thing of my wife. It seems to me that the markets were shut down after 9-11 and the world did not come to an end. Of course, Wall Street was under a cloud of dust at the time and there were rescue recovery operations under way at the time. There was also a feeling of insecurity – like we were waiting for the next shoe to drop – and a terrorist attack on Wall Street itself would have certainly been devastating.

I have a funny feeling that shutting down the US stock market without the extenuating circumstances that surrounded post-911 America, would lead to an even more devastating impact on world markets, however.